The correct pronunciation of Shi Shilin is mì shī lǐn
1. Chinese characters
Chinese characters are also called Chinese, Chinese characters, also known as square characters. They are the recording symbols of Chinese. A morpheme-syllabic script that is an ideogram. One of the oldest texts in the world, over 6,000 years old. In terms of form, it gradually changes from graphics to strokes, pictograms to symbols, and complexity to simplicity; in terms of the principle of character creation, it changes from form, meaning to phonetic sound. Except for a few Chinese characters, each Chinese character has one syllable.
Modern Chinese characters refer to the regular script fonts of Chinese characters, including traditional Chinese characters and simplified characters. Modern Chinese characters evolved from oracle bone inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, large seal script, small seal script, official script, cursive script, regular script, running script, etc. Chinese characters were invented, created and improved by the ancestors of the Han nation, and are an indispensable link between the various dialects of the Han nation.
The earliest extant Chinese characters are the oracle bone inscriptions of the Yin and Shang Dynasties around 1300 BC and the later bronze inscriptions. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, it evolved into the Zhou script, and then to the small seal script and official script of the Qin Dynasty. By the Han and Wei dynasties, official script became popular. By the end of the Han Dynasty, official script was transformed into regular script. Regular script was popular in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties and was widely used.
2. The theory of the origin of Chinese characters
From the ancient legend of Cangjie’s creation of characters to the emergence of oracle bone inscriptions more than 1,000 BC, Chinese scholars of all ages have been committed to uncovering the mystery of the origin of Chinese characters. Regarding the origin of Chinese characters, various schools have always had different opinions. Among them, the more influential theories are: the rope knotting theory, the Bagua theory, the engraving theory, the Cangjie creation theory, the engraving theory and the picture theory.
3. Spread
After the establishment of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the enfeoffment system of "feudal relatives, with vassals and vassal Zhou" became an important political system, and the geographical space of the Zhou people's enfeoffment was quite vast: Many early Zhou bronze wares have been unearthed from the Yan State of Liulihe in the north, to the Zeng State of Yejiashan in Suizhou in the south, and to the Qi State of Shandong in the east. Compared with the Shang Dynasty, the number and location of unearthed bronze inscriptions have greatly increased.
It is worth noting that in the early Western Zhou Dynasty, most of the bronze wares of the vassal states were the same as those of Zhou Wangji. There were no obvious differences in the shape, decoration and craftsmanship, especially in the inscriptions and calligraphy. Many of them could even be regarded as Written by one person. It can be seen that with the Great Enfeoffment, Zhou people, their systems, and culture realized cross-regional flow, and Chinese characters spread in all directions from the Central Plains, achieving a large-scale spread across the land of China.